Wowcraft by CarBot Animations

CarBot Animations, the geniuses behind Diablols Reaper of Souls, is launching a new series today--Wowcraft! Episodes are planned for every other Thursday.

Recent Blue Tweets

Over the past few days, we've gotten some tantalizing hints about new Engineering vanity items in Warlords, as well as an image of an upcoming pet trainer team, details on the new Artcraft, and hints that Blizzard may try to limit the impact of bad luck with loot roles more in the future.

Talk Azeroth With Olivia--BlizzCon Edition

Olivia's back after the roof blew off her studio, with a Talk Azeroth focusing on one of the biggest pieces of news to come out of BlizzCon, the changes in raid sizes. She's wondering just exactly what the impact will be on different guilds, from LFR right up to the controversial new Mythic raiding mode, as well as talking through a few of your responses to Talk Azeroth 17, and asking for your questions and views on Garrisons.

Warlords of Draenor: Itemization Changes and New Stats

Blizzard devs have been very active on Twitter discussing item and stat changes in Warlords of Draenor. You can learn about the entire itemization preview at BlizzCon on our Warlords of Draenor Guide, or check out the clarifications below. Most of these details were covered at BlizzCon, but it's easy to forget some details with so much new information!

Spirit (healers) and armor (tanks) will only appear on accessory slots, weapons, and gems, not main slots like helms. Accessory items will most likely just have secondary stats.

Only main armor pieces like helms will swap their primary stats in WoD--there's no "spirit plate" or "intellect plate" anymore--but secondary stats remain. So if you swap from Protection to Holy, the strength will change to intellect, but any mastery/haste will remain.

Tertiary stats are also a new type of stat coming in Warlords of Draenor--boring stats like hit and expertise are gone, replaced by interesting stats like Movement Speed and Lifesteal which are similar to interesting procs on Siege of Orgrimmar trinkets. A lot of Multistrike details were answered yesterday as well. Some of these new interesting stats may be considered secondary ones as well--guaranteed to be on gear, instead of tertiary stats, which are bonus additional stats that aren't a guarantee.

Q: A little confused what tanks will gear for on normal items? Mastery/Haste?A: @AlexEvangelou Yes, and even crit and other stats. (Source)

Q: The new item system (stats prop. for your spec) will affect all items (neck, ring...) or just the set (chest, helm..)?A: @_ivansc Only the main armor pieces (head etc.) will swap primary stats. That is true of tier sets and off-piece items. (Source)@_ivansc Jewelry etc. likely won't ever have primary stats. They may have attack power, but mostly secondary stats. (Source)

@AdamHolisky Yes. Multistrike is a chance on hits/crits only, not misses/avoids. (Source)

@VerainOfUrsin No; additional Multistrike and Cleave hits are considered procs, so can't proc more things. But, DPoison could Multistrike. (Source)

@IshayuG While I don't have any specifics to announce, rest assured that impact on PvP burst is definitely something that we're considering. (Source)

Q: Which means with Overload & Echo of the Elements you can get 6-12 hits per cast?A: @BinksPublicFeed Yes, theoretically, though that potential may be too much RNG/burst, so we may decide to adjust something in that picture. (Source)

Q: This may sound silly, but would multi-strike work for tank abilities, like a "double block"? Or is it cleave-like only?A: @Pocky469 No; just like your Shield Block cannot 'crit', it also cannot Multistrike or Cleave. (Source)

Q: if I have 10% Amplify haste, and 1000 haste rating on my gear, I have 1100 haste rating from gear? Round numbers for ease math.A: @Miatog Amplify isn't stat specific. If you have 10% Amplify, and 1000 Haste (rating) on gear, you get 1100 Haste (rating) from gear. (Source)

In light of the new RAF program being launched, it makes sense Blizzard announced yesterday that Cataclysm is now included in the Battle Chest for only $19.99--this change makes it easier and cheaper for new players to catch up to their friends. For seasoned players, there's also a 33% off sale on Winged Guardian this week!

Talk Azeroth

We've got another episode of Talk Azeroth up with Olivia! This time, Olivia gets into the acronyms with a re-recorded (after the last one failed) version of Talk Azeroth 16. She's talking about the controversial match-ending debuff, The Crowd Chose You, and the upcoming changes to it, as well as touching on the Diminishing Returns system, answering your questions about patch 5.4.1, and whether Siege is going to be another Dragon Soul.

Olivia dives right in to the World First race from her secret lair in the USA, wondering why the bosses are dropping like flies this time around and putting her pet theories out there for your examination. Next up, she's been besieged with emails about the Censer of Eternal Agony which is purchased from the Timeless Isle, and used either to mercilessly gank people like the black-hearted snakes you are, or for some fun world PvP, depending on your perspective. She hits up some viewer questions, if you want to send yours in email her on olivia@zam.com, and gets back to enjoying her holiday!

Click the cut for details on an upcoming Heroic Norushen hotfix and some recent Patch 5.4 changes!

For more details on the complete faire, including vanity pets and achievements, check out our Darkmoon Faire guide.

Transmog Discussion

Over the weekend, the EU forums have been having a lively discussion on transmog artwork through expansions. We love transmog here at Wowhead, so we're always curious to see what sets are popular among users.

Many posters are nostalgic for the look of Classic and Burning Crusade tier sets--however, as EU CM Vaneras points out, those sets may not just be popular due to aesthetics. They're relatively easy to farm, and pretty satisfying to get if you're an old-school player that viewed complete tier as a status symbol back in the day. (We do think they have some of the best artwork though.)

Other players ironically miss the mis-matched clown sets from Outland quest rewards, which were hated all throughout TBC. Wrath quest rewards were purposely dull in comparison so users would look matching while questing from 70 to 80, but for transmog purposes, some users feel they're too dull. While not all Wrath transmog sets are a hit, Wowhead users seem to especially like commenting on some platesets.

Finally, players noted that sets have shifted away from purely striking designs to themed designs based on each raid. For example, the Warrior Tier 15 set greatly resembles a Mogu, while the Tier 2 Battlegear of Wrath set isn't tied to a particular zone's style.

While it may be true that raid sets have a particular theme now, PvP sets are still not tied to particular themes (plus, Season 14 gear has glowy effects), and Blizzard has consistently made an effort to reuse old artwork and complete transmog sets that were missing some key pieces before, like the Isle of Thunder troll greens.

There's also been an additional EU thread talking about transmog restrictions on legendary items, with legendary capes coming in 5.4 with unique models.

With hundreds of transmog sets out there, as well as numerous striking stand-alone pieces, there's bound to be something out there that you like. What are you favorite sets?

In today's news roundup, Bashiok has been busy on the forums these past few days, covering professions, player feedback, and gearing up with Valor Points:

In Patch 5.3, item upgrades are returning at a reduced cost (0 Valor Points instead of 0 Valor Points) and several Shado-Pan Assault rewards are being moved down from Revered to a lower reputation requirement.

Justice Points are sidelined for now, and making players rely so much on Valor Points at the start of the expansion was an oversight.

In response to players asking about in-game surveys to provide feedback, Bashiok explained that Blizzard already amasses an exhaustive amount of player data, from talents players pick to what dailies are the most popular. Of course, forum feedback is also useful as it provides insights into player choices.

There were also a few interesting content tidbits: Black Temple was mean to be in the game at Burning Crusade's launch.

While most of Patch 5.3 was planned out a while ago, Battlefield: Barrens was only planned in 5.2.

Players gave lots of feedback on missing Heroic Dungeons at one point, so Heroic Scenarios are a nod to those players.

He also addressed some concerns about professions, alts, and the limitation in having Spirit of Harmony BoP. He did hint that towards the end of the expansion, Spirit of Harmony may become BoE, as past crafting items like Chaos Orb have followed suit.

Finally, if you purchased BlizzCon tickets for friends or family, you have until Tuesday, May 14 to enter or edit attendee information, such as character and real names.

Congratulations Lore

Our very own Lore is headed to work at Blizzard Entertainment! Lore will be joining the community team, getting some sweet blue text, and working alongside the likes of Bashiok and Zarhym.

Lore maintained the great strategy guides over at TankSpot and assisted me with PTR coverage, such as the Warlock Green Fire Preview in which he was one of the very first people to complete this challenging questline. He also worked on numerous Gamebreaker.tv shows including Legendary, After Dark, The Weekly Marmot, PST and PST Rapid Fire.

Ghostcrawler Tweets

Ghostcrawler was pretty busy tweeting this weekend--of particular importance was that advance notice will be given before Patch 5.3 goes live, so players know what to do with their Valor Points. That tweet was on Friday, May 3rd, and we haven't gotten any Blizzard posts on 5.3's launch since then.

A lot of players have also been clamoring for more dungeons as of late, due to the fact that 5.3 will ship with four new scenarios as well as heroic modes--yut no dungeons. Ghostcrawler acknowledged they're aware that some players do like dungeons and they'd like to find a way to keep players engaged with dungeons longer, but there are some challenges. As it is, dungeons require a tremendous amount of art assets to create, yet there's a danger players will tire of them quickly because dungeons can be run so many times per day, plus LFR makes their loot obsolete.

Click the cut to read all of Ghostcrawler's recent tweets, covering class abilities, dungeons and more!

There's also a Warcraft Battle Chest Sale until the 23rd, and the 2013 Student Art Contest Winners have been selected--as prizes, they'll get a mentorship with a member of the World of Warcraft art team!